# apex:message

A message for a specific component, such as a warning or error. If an `<apex:message>` or `<apex:messages>` component is not included in a page, most warning and error messages are only shown in the debug log.

## Example

```apex
<!-- For this example to render properly, you must associate the Visualforce page 
with a valid account record in the URL. 
For example, if 001D000000IRt53 is the account ID, the resulting URL should be: 
https://MyDomain_login_URL/apex/myPage?id=001D000000IRt53
See the Visualforce Developer's Guide Quick Start Tutorial for more information. -->
         
<!-- Page:  -->
<apex:page controller="MyController" tabStyle="Account">
    <style>
    .locationError { color: blue; font-weight: strong;}
    .employeeError { color: green; font-weight: strong;}
    </style>

    <apex:form > 
        <apex:pageBlock title="Hello {!$User.FirstName}!">
        This is your new page for the {!name} controller. <br/>
        You are viewing the {!account.name} account.

        <p>Number of Locations: <apex:inputField value="{!account.NumberofLocations__c}" 
            id="Location_validation"/> 
        (Enter an alphabetic character here, then click Save to see what happens.) </p>
           
        <p>Number of Employees: <apex:inputField value="{!account.NumberOfEmployees}"
            id="Employee_validation"/> 
        (Enter an alphabetic character here, then click Save to see what happens.) </p>
            <p /> 
        <apex:commandButton action="{!save}" value="Save"/>    
         <p />
        <apex:message for="Location_validation" styleClass="locationError" /> <p /> 
        <apex:message for="Employee_validation" styleClass="employeeError" />   <p />   
        </apex:pageBlock>  
    </apex:form>  
</apex:page>

/*** Controller  ***/
public class MyController {
    Account account;

    public PageReference save() {
    try{
        update account;
    }
    catch(DmlException ex){
        ApexPages.addMessages(ex);
    }
    return null;
    }

    public String getName() { 
        return 'MyController';
    }

    public Account getAccount() {
        if(account == null)
        account = [select id, name, numberofemployees, numberoflocations__c from Account
        where id = :ApexPages.currentPage().getParameters().get('id')];
        return account;
    }
}
```

## Attributes

| Attribute Name | Attribute Type | Description                                                                                                                                                                                               | Required? | API Version | Access |
| -------------- | -------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------- | ----------- | ------ |
| `dir`          | String         | The direction in which the generated HTML component should be read. Possible values include "RTL" (right to left) or "LTR" (left to right).                                                               |           | 10.0        | global |
| `for`          | String         | The ID of the component with which the message should be associated.                                                                                                                                      |           | 10.0        | global |
| `id`           | String         | An identifier that allows the message component to be referenced by other components in the page.                                                                                                         |           | 10.0        | global |
| `lang`         | String         | The base language for the generated HTML output, for example, "en" or "en-US". For more information on this attribute, see [the W3C specifications](http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/struct/dirlang.html). |           | 10.0        | global |
| `rendered`     | Boolean        | A Boolean value that specifies whether the component is rendered on the page. If not specified, this value defaults to true.                                                                              |           | 10.0        | global |
| `style`        | String         | The style used to display the message, used primarily for adding inline CSS styles.                                                                                                                       |           | 10.0        | global |
| `styleClass`   | String         | The style class used to display the message, used primarily to designate which CSS styles are applied when using an external CSS stylesheet.                                                              |           | 10.0        | global |
| `title`        | String         | The text to display as a tooltip when the user's mouse pointer hovers over this component.                                                                                                                |           | 10.0        | global |

**See Also**

- [apex:messages](/docs/platform/salesforce-pages-developers-guide/guide/pages-compref-messages.md)